Books like this don't land on the table every day. Bruno Schaffner's "Limit" is a mixture of biography and scrapbook, the British call it a "scrapbook". Some people who have experienced a lot think about writing down their "memoirs" in old age, perhaps even publishing them. But few do, and by no means all those who do have such an exciting and fateful story to tell as Bruno Schaffner.
Gasoline in his blood
It was clear from an early age that Schaffner would one day be involved with cars. His parents already drove Bugatti cars! And his father restored cars himself, such as a 1910 Martini. He also took part in the 2nd Swiss Motor Veterans Rally in 1959, making him a classic car enthusiast from the very beginning.
So it was obvious that his son Bruno was also interested in cars. His first contact with the Lotus brand came about on the way to school, a truly fateful encounter, as Colin Chapman's cars are the common thread running through Bruno Schaffner's second career, so to speak.
Initially, his employer was still a large company and his work had little to do with cars; sports cars were more of a hobby. But in 1983 Schaffner became self-employed and immediately devoted himself to maintaining Lotus sports and racing cars. In 1991, the young company became a Lotus dealer, but it was not until the Lotus Elise was launched in 1997 that Schaffner's new car sales took a major leap forward. In four years, over 100 of these lightweight sports cars were sold, a real second mainstay.
And then tragedy struck: Schaffner's son Mike, who had actively joined the company, had a fatal accident in the passenger seat during a test drive. Many would not have recovered from this stroke of fate, but Bruno Schaffner did not give up and eventually found a successor for his company in Bruno Weibel.
At the limit
The title of the book is no coincidence, because for Bruno Schaffner, life at the limit is part of everyday life. Whether it was increasing the performance of the famous four-cylinder Twincam engines or optimizing the racing cars he supervised, it was always a matter of pushing the limits of what was feasible while still having enough safety margins to ensure that reliability did not suffer and the goal could be achieved.
Schaffner also competed very successfully in races, both in formula cars and sports cars. And he also raced in a Ginetta G4 IRS, which he drove to many of his victories and placings. This beautiful sports car from England had a Lotus Twincam engine, even though it originally had a DKW two-stroke three-cylinder engine for its first race outing.
A look back, friends, vehicles and more
Bruno Schaffner's book is 230 pages long. It is a collection of memories, portraits of people who went part of the way with him, and descriptions of vehicles and technologies that were important to him.
It is best to read the book from cover to cover, as it is neither clearly structured historically nor clearly divided into subject areas. But it is precisely these scraps of memory, anecdotes and insights that make Schaffner's book so worth reading.
And as a scrapbook, the book contains many memorabilia from Schaffner's life, from letters and greeting cards to many group photos.
The list of vehicles Schaffner worked on and with at the end of the book is certainly valuable for collectors. It also lists long lines of owners that read like a "who's who" of Swiss racing.
It goes without saying that a book in a small edition cannot be cheap, but for some Lotus owners the CHF 59.00 is probably worth it just for one piece of information or one page. And then there are the other 229 pages as dessert, so to speak, which are ideal for reading in front of the fire (or in the Lotus garage).
Bibliographical details
- Title: Limit
- Author: Bruno Schaffner
- Language: German
- Publisher: Self-published
- Edition: 1st edition November 2020 (limited to 500 copies)
- Format: Hardcover, 22 x 29 cm
- Scope: 230 pages, over 350 illustrations
- ISBN: 978-3-033-08201-4
- Price: CHF 59.00 (plus shipping costs)
- Buy/order: By email directly from the publisher or in writing via Sonja Schaffner, Schweizäckerstrases 9, CH-8955 Oetwil a.d.L.
